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Number of Legal 18x18 Go Positions Computed; 19x19 On the Horizon
johntromp writes It took about 50,000 CPU hours and 4PB of disk IO, but now we know the exact number of legal 18x18 Go positions. Seeking computing power for the ultimate 19x19 count. And it's not a heat-death-of-the-universe kind of question, either, they say: "Thanks to the Chinese Remainder Theorem, the work of computing L(19,19) can be split up into 9 jobs that each compute 64 bits of the 566-bit result. Allowing for some redundancy, we need from 10 to 13 servers, each with at least 8 cores, 512GB RAM, and ample disk space (10-15TB), running for about 5-9 months."
I played chess and go when I was a kid in China, and sucked at both.
There are approximately 100 people in the world who don't suck at chess, and even they make silly mistakes. Don't play chess in an effort to be the 'best', play chess because it's fun.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Having played both nothing transfers. The strategy level is different. Go is about unit formations and patterns. Chess is about unit tactics.
I can play both at an intermediate level, and I agree with this. The mentality is very different. If you are starting as an adult, you are very unlikely to ever be a master, but you can easily learn the game well enough to have fun. Go has a handicapping system that allows for competitive games between people with a wide skill gap. Besides, Go tournaments, like chess tournaments, and model railroading conventions, are a great place to meet chicks.
I'm not quite clear how 6.697231142888292128 927401888417065435 099377806401787328 103183376969456244 285472181052143260 127743713971848488 909701118362834704 688128279071499265 02347633e151 is much of an improvement, to be honest.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.